ECB’s Lagarde Intervened to Block Binance’s EU MiCA License: WSJ

• The Wall Street Journal reported this week that ECB President Christine Lagarde asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve Binance’s MiCA license application.
• Greek officials had told ESMA in early June that they intended to approve the bid, but Binance withdrew its application on June 24 before any formal decision.
• Greece’s regulator and government deny any interference, while Binance declined to comment on what it called speculation.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde intervened to block the Binance MiCA license application in Greece, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the Journal, Lagarde asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve the bid, which would have allowed the world’s largest crypto exchange to offer services across the European Union.

The ECB holds no formal role in crypto licensing. Under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), national regulators authorize crypto-asset service providers, and a license from one member state can be passported across the rest of the bloc. That made Binance’s filing with Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) a gateway to all 27 EU markets.

“We will not comment on speculation,” a Binance spokesperson said in response to the report. The spokesperson added that the exchange remains committed to long-term, compliant operations under MiCA.

How the Binance MiCA License Bid Unraveled

The Journal’s account suggests Binance came closer to approval than previously known. By late May, Greek officials had told the company its application was complete. Binance drafted an announcement for the expected authorization, and co-CEO Richard Teng planned a trip to Athens to meet Mitsotakis, according to the report.

In early June, Greek officials informed the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) that the HCMC intended to approve the application. Shortly afterward, a vice chair of the HCMC told Binance that Lagarde had asked Mitsotakis not to approve it, and that the regulator could not proceed without his support, the Journal reported. About a week later, the HCMC told Binance the license would not go ahead. Binance withdrew its application on June 24, before the regulator issued any formal decision.

According to the Journal, Lagarde raised two concerns. The first involved Binance’s compliance record in the United States, where the exchange pleaded guilty in November 2023 and agreed to pay more than $4 billion over the Bank Secrecy Act, unlicensed money transmission, and sanctions violations. The second concern centered on dollar-backed stablecoins. Lagarde reportedly feared that a MiCA passport for Binance could accelerate the use of U.S. dollar stablecoins in Europe and weaken support for the ECB’s planned digital euro.

Lagarde has aired similar concerns in public without naming Binance. In a May 8 speech at the Banco de España LatAm Economic Forum, she noted that stablecoin supply had grown from less than $10 billion six years earlier to more than $300 billion.

Greece Denies Interference

Greek authorities reject the Journal’s account. An HCMC spokesperson told the newspaper that its officials did not make the comments attributed to them and that the regulator assessed the application independently. An adviser to Greece’s finance minister said the government played no role in the process. Neither Lagarde nor the ECB has publicly confirmed the reported intervention.

When Binance withdrew the Greek filing in June, the exchange said it had engaged “constructively and in good faith” with Greek authorities and would seek authorization in another EU member state. Binance then restricted services for users in several EU countries ahead of the July 1 deadline, when MiCA’s transitional period ended. The exchange has not announced a new MiCA license since.

Editorial Note: Reported and edited by the Crypto India Magazine editorial team. We use AI tools to assist with research and drafting; every article is reviewed and fact-checked by our editors.

Interested in advertising with CIM? Talk to us!